Billed as the family blockbuster of the year, Speed Racer is an attempt by the Wachowski Brothers (the sibling duo behind The Matrix films) to target the family market.

Pioneers in the genre of sci-fi action film, their mastery of digitally-created special effects is unrivalled – but what about their grasp on story and characters?

As a boy, Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) was in awe of his racing driver brother Rex Racer.

Distracted at school, all Speed wants to do is emulate his older brother.

When Rex is killed in a horrific racing accident, Speed is all the more eager to follow in his brother’s footsteps and, when he is made a lucrative offer to race for a shady megalomaniac businessman Royalton (Roger Allam), it is proof that he has made his name as a driver to rival the talent of his brother.

However, loyalty and integrity cause him to turn the offer down to continue racing for his father, Pops Racer (John Goodman).

As he starts to uncover the rotten core of corruption at the heart of the racing world, it is down to him and the mysterious Racer X (Matthew Fox) to topple Royalton’s stranglehold on the industry.

Speed Racer is a part CGI, part live action re-imagining of the classic Japanese anime cartoon series.

The Wachowski Brothers have effectively captured the comic book feel, with bright colours, astonishing CGI sequences and shots and framing set up to resemble the pages of a comic.

Unfortunately, too much jargon and description in the dull dialogue render it meaningless and boring to its target audience.

While the film’s message about the importance of family is an admirable, if commonplace, one, it isn’t much good if you don’t much care for characters who have little depth.

With a cast of respected actors including John Goodman, Susan Sarandon, Christina Ricci and Lost’s Matthew Fox, as well as up-and-coming indie actor Emile Hirsch, it’s a shame their talents weren’t brought into play and with a supporting cast that includes Brits, Aussies and Korean singing sensation Rain, its cynical ploy to draw in a huge international audience is obvious.

This blatant money-maker is perhaps admirable for its astonishing visual appeal but beyond the first 20 minutes, it’s a bum-numbing entertainment-free piece of cinema that even children will find difficult to sit through.

Emile Hirsch brings Japanese cartoon character Speed Racer to life in a live-action version of the classic children’s series